Singer/songwriter James Bay has been named the latest recipient of the BRIT Awards Critics' Choice prize. Bay beat out shortlisted acts George The Poet and Years & Years to land the coveted honour, which has previously been won by Emeli Sande, Ellie Goulding, Adele and Sam Smith, on Wednesday (03Dec14).
The winner is chosen by a panel of music industry experts.
Bay, who has yet to release his debut album, will perform at the BRITS nomination party next month (Jan15), alongside FKA Twigs and Clean Bandit.
He says, "I'm pretty speechless. After all the years I've spent watching the BRITS and even after this year; watching my fan base grow so much, I never thought I'd actually be getting an award myself."
The 2015 BRIT Awards will be held at the O2 Arena in London on 25 February (15).

Star Trek veteran William Shatner has recorded a special message for scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) as they landed a probe on a comet. The actor, who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original sci-fi franchise, taped a video for the ESA's Rosetta team ahead of the mission on Wednesday (12Nov14) which aimed to land a probe named Philae on the surface of the icy body.
In the clip, which is set to the hit TV show's theme music, Shatner says, "Good luck Rosetta... Philae's gonna land!... I am so excited and I wish you such good luck. Good wishes from all of us here in Los Angeles."
The probe landed successfully on Wednesday.

Punk icon Patti Smith had to change the lyrics for her Noah theme Mercy Is when director Darren Aronofsky reminded her there were no horses in his film. The Because The Night rocker had never written exclusively for a movie before the filmmaker asked her to create a lullaby for his biblical epic, and she admits it wasn't as easy as she thought it would be.
She tells Billboard.com, "I had to do some work at the Venice Film Festival some years ago and I bumped into Darren... We were walking around the streets of Venice and I said, 'Well, what are you working on? What's your next dream? What's your next project?' And he told me that he's always wanted to do the story of Noah. Well, I loved the story of Noah. I had a very strong bible education as a kid, I loved biblical-themed films and I thought, 'This is fantastic'.
"And then he mentioned that he was getting the songs together and he needed a lullaby. And I just impulsively said, 'Please, let me write it'. Because I've written like, three or four lullabies in my life. It's one of my specialities. And I said, 'Just give me a chance, and if you don't like it, fine'. He was so happy and so welcoming. I mean, I'm not usually so aggressive. You know, I'll usually be much cooler than that. But I just knew it was my project.
"I wrote it and there was a line... - Two white horses, two white doves, to carry you away into the land of memory - because I was seeing, like, white horses and the white doves. And Darren said, 'Patti, it's beautiful, but they didn't have horses then. There were no horses, you know, in Noah's world'.
"We just laughed about that. I just changed it to two white wings, two white doves; it wasn't difficult. It wasn't a simple song to write. I had laboured over it quite a bit because it was a particular lullaby. It wasn't just to sing the little girl to sleep; it was a song that Methuselah, Noah's father, had sang to him...
"Darren and I had a lot of talk, and Darren was great because I got to a point where I got slightly... intimidated of the responsibility and I was wondering, 'I don't have any real experience doing this. Do they need someone more experienced?'
"When we recorded it again, I had to do something I never did: record live with a string quartet - not only a string quartet, but one that has a tonal sound. So I had to sing against a melody... It was challenging, but Darren was right there in the studio and the Kronos Quartet was great. And I felt by the end of it that I had accomplished something."
And now Smith, who is expected to land an Oscar nomination for her Noah theme, is hoping for more opportunities to write songs for films: "I'm quite honoured and grateful to Darren, because, you know, I'm still an unknown quantity. I mean, if they want a song for a James Bond film, they wouldn't go to me. They'll go to someone that has the touch on the public consciousness, who has a strong contemporary voice.
"For The Hunger Games record, they didn't ask me to write for the movie, which I thought was unfortunate because I could've written them a really good song. I read all the books and saw the first movie and I related to the character. I love (lead character) Katniss (Everdeen), you know? She's young, she's free, she's the girl with the bow and arrow - I just loved the image of her. And being a reluctant revolutionary, I can understand where you feel your calling is something else."

Soul legend Aretha Franklin has become the first woman to score 100 hits on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart since 1958 thanks to her cover of Adele's Rolling In The Deep. The song debuts at number 47, making Franklin only the fourth act to land at least 100 hits on the countdown - she joins rappers Jay Z (127) and Lil Wayne (135) and the Godfather of Soul James Brown (111).
Franklin first hit the chart 54 years ago this month with Today I Sing the Blues, and she last hit the countdown in 2012 with How Long I've Been Waiting.
Her take on Adele's hit features on Aretha's new covers album Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics.

Actor Jeremy Renner wants to land a role in a Broadway musical to prove he is capable of shedding his serious action man movie persona. The Hurt Locker star is known for his brooding roles in The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and he is determined to prove he is just as talented on stage.
He tells New York Post gossip column Page Six, "I want to. I can. I grew up as a singer. Listen, in the old days James Cagney played tough shoot-'em-up bad guys plus song-and-dance musicals. So, don't give up on me...
"Y'know, I'd love someday to do Broadway, but (I have) no time. My workload's heavy. I haven't (had) two free weeks on this planet. Look, I don't watch TV, haven't been to a movie theatre in years, can't catch a Broadway show, and only saw Hurt Locker once."

Jessica Chastain felt more than comfortable working with writer/director Ned Benson on their new movie The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby, because the filmmaker is her ex-boyfriend. The famously private Zero Dark Thirty star reveals she remained friends with Benson long after their romantic relationship ended, and once she found fame with her breakthrough role in 2011's The Help, she wanted to do what she could to get his feature film debut to the big screen.
Chastain also helped her close pal, Teeth actress Jess Weixler, land a role in the film, too.
She explains, "I really believe in him and I met him because I won tickets to the Malibu Film Festival... and I saw a short film he did; I thought he was so talented.
"We became friends for four years, then we started a relationship and he'd written this film. The relationship ended, but I don't believe that love ends; I think it just kind of transforms, but never goes away, so, to be able to shine the spotlight that was on me, and say, 'Look at my friends', because also my best friend Jess Weixler plays my sister in the movie, and just to say, like, 'How incredible are these people?', it was a very emotional experience to make it."
Chastain's star power also attracted the likes of James McAvoy, Viola Davis and William Hurt to sign up for the drama, about a young couple whose marriage is rocked by a life-changing event.

A hard-hitting new film about the U.S. invasion of Panama has been picked as that country's first Oscars submission. Abner Benaim's documentary Invasion, about U.S. troops' efforts to extract General Manuel Noriega from power in 1989, features no archive footage, and relies on the memories of Panamanian citizens.
The director, who is hoping to land a Best Foreign Film nomination in January (15), has scored a series of firsts during his short filmmaking career - his movie Chance was the first Panamanian production in over 60 years and it beat James Cameron's Avatar at the domestic box office in 2009.
Invasion won both the Best Documentary Audience Award and the Mastercard Central America and Caribbean Audience Award at the Panama International Film Festival.

Rocker Damon Albarn and duo Royal Blood have emerged as the favourites for this year's (14) coveted Mercury Prize in Britain. The former Blur frontman's debut solo project, Everybody Robots, and Royal Blood's self-titled release are the joint favourites to land the best British and Irish album of the year title, according to official bookmakers at William Hill.
However, rival firm Ladbrokes have given FKA Twigs' LP1 and poet Kate Tempest's Everybody Down the edge on its odds list.
The newly-announced shortlist also features Bombay Bicycle Club (So Long, See You Tomorrow), Anna Calvi (One Breath), GoGo Penguin (v2.0), East India Youth (Total Strife Forever), Jungle (Jungle), Polar Bear (In Each and Every One), Young Fathers (Dead) and Nick Mulvey (First Mind).
The 12 acts will compete for a $34,000 (£20,000) prize, which will be announced in London on 29 October (14).
Albarn's nomination is his first since he withdrew his band Gorillaz's self-titled debut from contention in 2001, when he compared the honour to "carrying an albatross around your neck for all eternity".
Singer/songwriter James Blake took home the 2013 Mercury Prize for his album Overgrown.

United Artists via Everett Collection
German actor Gottfried John, who famously battled James Bond on the big screen, has died, aged 72.
The Goldeneye star passed away in Munich, Germany on Monday (01Sep14) after a battle with cancer. He is best remembered for playing villainous General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov in the 1995 blockbuster and going up against 007 Pierce Brosnan.
In his early career, he worked with iconic director Rainer Werner Fassbinder on several projects including 1979 movie The Marriage of Maria Braun and 1980 TV miniseries Berlin Alexanderplatz.
After his high-profile role in Goldeneye, John went on to land more Hollywood parts, including starring opposite John Malkovich in 1996's The Ogre, and in 2000 thriller Proof of Life with Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan.